President Cyril Ramaphosa says monuments ‘glorifying our divisive past should be repositioned and relocated’ in the interests of ‘being sensitive to the lived experiences of all this country’s people’.
This also applied to ‘naming and renaming of towns and cities … as well as the erection of new statues and monuments’.
In a Heritage Day address, Ramaphosa said: ‘Any symbol, monument or activity that glorifies racism, that represents our ugly past, has no place in democratic South Africa.’
‘Monuments glorifying our divisive past should be repositioned and relocated. This has generated controversy, with some saying we are trying to erase our history. Building a truly non-racial society means being sensitive to the lived experiences of all this country’s people.
‘We make no apologies for this because our objective is to build a united nation.’
He said creating ‘social cohesion’ in South Africa ‘means we must be mindful of the legacy of our past, whether we are businesses selling products, whether we are producers of content for television, or otherwise’.
Building ‘a united nation means we must be aware of and check our own acts of racism and prejudice continuously’.
‘We come from a history of prejudice and exclusion, and since democracy we have worked to transform the heritage landscape of our country.
‘The struggle against apartheid was first and foremost aimed at ensuring that all our people should reclaim their dignity, black and white.
‘Restoring their dignity is the preoccupation of this administration.’
On ‘gender-based violence’, Ramaphosa said: ‘So long as this country’s women and children live in fear from violence, we cannot regard ourselves as totally free.
‘So long as women are being harassed, abused, beaten, raped and murdered, we cannot say we are a civilised society.’
He added that abusing women ‘is not our tradition, nor is it our custom. It is not, and will never be, our heritage’.